One-Man Watchmakers Challenge the Luxury Brands

Very interesting article from the Herald Tribune about the growing interest of independent watchmakers in the luxury watch market. -->LINK

"Centuries ago, watchmaking was a one-man job, or at most a small workshop process. Then the Industrial Revolution brought economies of scale and production line output, even for high-end timepieces. Modern watch manufacturers coordinate production among numerous specialists in dozens of highly skilled fields, from design to micro-machining and polishing.

"For some obsessive collectors, rather than acquire high complications from big brands where many hands make a single watch, the holy grail of watches is to have a watchmaker who will have had his hands on every single element of the watch,"

"Because the dial, case, movement is made from one pair of hands, it will never be repeated to the same level of unique quality by any team of watchmakers.

"It's almost akin to Leonardo da Vinci drawing his invention and ultimately building it from scratch."